Garrett Armwood serves as the Vice President of Government Affairs for SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office landlord.

Prior to joining SL Green, Garrett served as Deputy State Director to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, spearheading major projects for the senator across New York State including the siting of the U.S. Department of Energy’s $2 billion Electron Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the refinancing of Co-Op City’s federally backed mortgage.

Before his tenure with Senator Schumer, Garrett served as Deputy District Director to Congressman Steve Israel (NY-3) during Israel’s leadership roles within the House of Representatives, including chairmanship of both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC).

With 14 years of campaign experience at the federal, state, and local levels, Garrett has contributed to both political and issue-based campaigns across New York. He holds a B.A. in Political Science

Vivienne is the Business Centre Operations Leader for Stantec’s US Northeast Transportation Business. Within this role she leads a team of 200 talented staff including civil engineers, structural engineers, landscape architects and urban planners across a variety of infrastructure projects from transit-oriented developments, to bridges, roadways, urban spaces and rail projects.

Vivienne is an innovative engineer and project manager with extensive experience in successful delivery of infrastructure projects for private and public sector clients within Australia and North America. She is an exceptional communicator and leader with a track record of leading motivated, engaged and high-performance teams. Vivienne is a relationship driven professional, partnering with clients to strategically deliver their projects.

She has held prior Board level roles, having served as a State Councilor for the Urban Development Institute of Australia WA from 2019 – 2020. Prior to that she served as Chair of their Infrastructure and Young Professionals Committees starting in 2011. Within NYC, Vivienne currently serves as a member of NYCDDC’s Town + Gown Utilidor Working Group which focuses analysis and opportunities for implementing utilidors and innovative subsurface design in New York City based on international best practice. Vivienne is the Principal and Project Manager for Stantec for a multi-billion-dollar transit-oriented development in Midtown Manhattan.

Jen Hensley is the senior vice president of Corporate Affairs at Con Edison, the energy company serving the 10 million people of New York City, Westchester, Orange and Rockland counties. In her role, she oversees Government and Community Relations, Regulatory Affairs, Communications, Marketing, and Philanthropy departments. She is a member of the company’s Corporate Leadership Team.

Before joining Con Edison, Ms. Hensley headed Government Relations for Lyft, leading the company’s practice across the US and Canada. Previously, she served as President of Link for Intersection, Executive Director of the Association for a Better New York, Senior Adviser to the Chairman at Empire State Development Corporation, and Assistant Vice President at the Alliance for Downtown New York. She also held positions in finance at Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.

A graduate of Barnard College, Ms. Hensley also holds a Master of Business Administration from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a Master of Public Administration from NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Ms. Hensley serves as Chair of the Board of Pursuit, a tech training organization, as well as Co-Chair of the Board of the Union Square Partnership. She is a member of the Board of the Association for a Better New York.

Driven by telecommunications’ ability to empower communities, Ana Rua leads New York Government Affairs City & State strategy at the nation’s largest provider of shared wireless infrastructure, Crown Castle. An immigrant from Colombia, Rua has spent her career in New York paying it forward on the American Dream by working with the intention of social responsibility at public and private institutions.

Prior to her role at Crown Castle, Rua was part of the team that spearheaded the New NY Broadband Program, a $500M initiative to connect the most rural and remote regions of New York State with high-speed internet access, traveling to 56 of the state’s 62 counties to facilitate the program’s implementation. Also, at Governor Cuomo’s office,she inherited a $70 million portfolio of legacy projects in dire need of management and by coordinating with utilities, establishing availability of services and ensuring minority and women-owned businesses got a seat at the table, the projects are now on track and on-budget.

In her current work for Crown Castle, where she paves the way for next generation wireless infrastructure with the aim of transforming the digital landscape of the region. By educating and informing residents, influencers, municipal staff, and elected officials, she helps shape public policy and opinion, generates advocates, and builds community relationships with the objective of connecting those in disenfranchised and far-reaching communities with tools to empower themselves via telecommunications. ​“I get a tremendous sense of purpose because I work in this industry that has a fundamental focus to make people’s lives easier, better and more connected,” she says.

Rua sits on the board of Junior Achievement and is Chair of York College City University of New York.

Alison Sant is the author of From the Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities, named among the best books of 2022 by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and Planetizen. She has spoken for numerous organizations, including the Atlantic Magazine, Smithsonian, American Planning Association (APA), Smart Growth America, Audubon Society, and the Center for the Living City’s Jane Jacobs Lecture Series. Sant’s writing has been featured in U.S. News and World Report, Streetsblog, Earth Island Magazine, New Cities, City Lab, Planetizen, and Fast Company. Her work has been supported by the Headlands Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Resilient By Design, SPUR, California Coastal Conservancy, and the Exploratorium, among others.

Sant was the co-founder of the Studio for Urban Projects, an interdisciplinary design collaborative based in San Francisco that worked at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, art, and social activism. For nearly 20 years, the Studio focused on public programming, urban prototyping, and civic dialog – aiming to bring social justice and sustainability to the design of cities. In 2016, it was honored for contributing to its field by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as a member of the YBCA100.

Sant has taught at the College of Environmental Design, University of California Berkeley, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the California College of the Art. She currently teaches at Harvard Extension School’s Sustainability & Environment Program.

Midori is a transportation, operations, and urban planning professional committed to building cities that center people. As the Founder + Principal of Midori Valdivia Consulting LLC, Midori specializes in project leadership services for organizations making change in cities. From city and state agencies to communities and advocates working to avert the climate crisis, the practice crafts policies that center equity, grounded in firm public finance expertise, while facilitating complex policy decisions with clients.

Midori has focused on a wide range of issues in her career including securing transit funding for transport agencies, operationalizing equity and prioritizing disability access, and building climate resilience. She led a career in public service holding senior roles at major transportation delivery organizations in New York City, including Chief of Staff to the Chair & CEO of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Deputy Commissioner for Finance and Administration (Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer) at the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, and Senior Advisor to the Executive Director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She was also the Chief Operating Officer for Coro New York Leadership Center, the City’s premier leadership training organization.

Midori is a graduate of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs where she received a joint degree in Public Affairs and Urban & Regional Planning. She was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs and received her bachelor’s degree at Penn State.

Mark Weprin is Vice President of Government Affairs for New York at Invenergy, the leading privately held developer, owner, and operator of sustainable energy solutions.

Mark formerly served in the New York State Assembly and New York City Council, where he chaired the sub-committee on Zoning and Franchises of the Land Use Committee and held the position of Chair of the Queens City Council Delegation. Prior to his election to the New York City Council, Weprin served 15 years in the New York State Assembly where he authored more than 60 laws and served as Chair of the Small Business Committee.

Most recently, Mark was a Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig where he supported the government affairs and policy team and represented clients in legislative and regulatory matters at various levels of government. Before joining Greenberg Traurig, Weprin served as deputy secretary of legislative affairs for the New York Governor’s office.

Andrea Woodner’s professional life has been dedicated to the cultural vitality of New York City.

In 1995 Andrea founded the Design Trust for Public Space, to unlock the potential of New York’s parks, gardens, public infrastructure, plazas and streetscapes. Today, the Design Trust is nationally recognized for its impact on both policy and design in all five boroughs of the City. Andrea received the AIA Award of Merit in 2001 and in 2014 was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame, receiving a Thought Leadership award. The Design Trust was honored by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 2012 and received the Olmsted Medal in 2015.

In 2015 Andrea launched the Hercules Art/ Studio Program, to encourage and enable talented young visual artists to pursue their careers and engage in the cultural dialogue of New York City. The Hercules program offers affordable private studios and shared exhibition and meeting space. Seven top graduates from Hunter and Columbia MFA programs now occupy space in the Hercules facility in lower Manhattan.